In the workshop with Pilar Pobil (see earlier post) I created a beautiful frame. It only took a couple of days of that frame sitting empty in my studio for me to get the urge to create something fun and unique to go in it. A funky portrait of my siamese cat Monkey was just the thing. So I sat down on a Tuesday night and began. I took a little break to go play an indoor soccer game, then quickly came back to finish it up. After getting it in the frame, this was the first of my paintings to go on my wall.

As a birthday gift to myself this last June I participated in a workshop with Pilar Pobil, a Utah artist originally from Spain. I love Pilar's work so I was so excited to get to take this class and meet her. She is such a cute woman! One of the things Pilar is known for is painting the actual frame that her art goes into, so in this workshop that was what we would be doing. I loved meeting her and learning a little bit more about her. She actually didn't start painting until she was in her 40's so that alone gave me hope and inspired me to get back to painting and see what I could do with it.

At the workshop we were given our frame, some paint and a little direction to begin. As we all sat down to start our projects I sat in front of mine and just stared at it. I wanted to get up and see what everyone else was doing on theirs so I could figure out what I was going to do on mine. I realized that was not what I needed to do, though. I needed to trust in my own creative process without worrying about what others were doing or how it would compare. What a huge epiphany this was for me!

I grabbed my paint brush and just began putting down paint. I threw myself completely into what I was doing and let the creativity flow through me. I was thrilled with the result and LOVED my frame. I purchased Pilar's book (which I had been wanting to buy for a few years now) and had her sign it. She graciously agreed to pose for a picture, gave me her card and told me to call her when I finished her book and let her know what I thought of her little stories. Best present I could have given myself!

Thursday, October 6, 2011

If you know me you probably know my love of sunflowers. And of course my love of Van Gogh who is known for his sunflowers. I'm no Van Gogh but this is my little take on this flower. Part of a series that took 3rd place in the South Weber Art Show several years ago.